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Friday, June 5, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

Eskom's acting MD of the enterprises division, Braam Conradie, said on Friday that changes in market conditions present a significant opportunity for Eskom to reduce the capital costs of its new build programme.

Eskom was spending 385-billion-rand on its capital expansion projects over a five-year period. Conradie noted that this formed an integral part of government's response to the global economic crisis.

The power utility was planning to make good use of the economic downturn. He said that it was expecting to get better prices from suppliers and that it would also try to renegotiate certain contracts.

Eskom would look for savings everywhere, including its capital expenditure and its operating expenditure. Conradie said that "everything was up for debate". However, he admitted that there would be some offsetting factors, such as the price of equity.

The National Treasury would establish a unit to monitor and investigate corruption in public procurement processes, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced on Friday.

Speaking in Cape Town, Gordhan said that the unit would focus on both government employees and private-sector involvement in such crimes.

The announcement follows on from a commitment made by President Jacob Zuma in his earlier State of the Nation address, in which he indicated that particular attention would be paid to combating corruption and fraud in procurement and tender processes.

Also making headlines:

More regulatory certainty is needed for IPPs to succeed in South Africa.
Hyundai hands over the World Cup fleet to the FIFA World Cup organising committee.
The Inga 3 hydro-project will provide 'quite a bit' of power to South Africa.
And, Eskom may need a private partner to fund its expansion.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.